Canada

Obviously, the Canadian Rockies are a great place to be. They offer an amazing scenery and the possibility to watch some wildlife. Here you can find some of the best places to watch wildlife in the Canadian Rockies listed. Wildlife is moving around freely in these parks, so there is no guaranty to spot them. Nonetheless, you can increase your chances by taking some easy rules into account. For example: Drive slowly on the roads and keep your eyes open. If you have multiple people in the car, give everybody an area to ‘scan’ for wildlife. Obviously, the driver’s … Read more

YouTube link to documentary Just as an end of my blog about Canada, here is the youtube link of the little documentary they have made about the research we were doing there: Let’s Go Outdoors – Grizzlies in the Rockies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB_IP0EPz1Y Want to read more about Canada Other blog articles from my adventure in 2013:1. First fieldwork position – Canada – Start2. Edmonton3. First Grizzly, Northern Lights, and so much more…4. Bear encounter & almost famous5. Camera trap stories, Jasper National Park, & Accommodation6. Canada 2013: Update past month7. Let’s Go Outdoors: Grizzlies in the Rockies

Heavy rains In the end of June, we had a couple of days almost non-stop raining… In our study area, it was not as bad as the stuff happened in Calgary, but we had some wash outs as well. We couldn’t access a part of our study area because a part of the road was just gone due to the power of the river and a bit further a bridge was out… But with a bit more driving and walking, we managed to get our job done. btw, this is supposed to be a ‘Highway’… (Pre) Canada Day (1st … Read more

update Hi there, Time for another update of my adventures in Canada, this time a bit more about the camera trapping itself. During the project we place camera traps at random locations and half of them we move every 20 days, so we started rotating some of the cameras and could have a look at some nice pictures. A day of cameratrap stories & a wolf sighting One day was kind of great. We started the day with picking up a camera and during the walk to the camera I noticed already some wolf prints, so I was … Read more

Grizzly encounter I ‘ve been in Canada for over a month now, during a lot of my walks to put out cameras I came across bear tracks (in the mud, in the snow…). Up until yesterday, I just had seen Grizzlies from the car, but yesterday we came face to face with a grizzly bear during one of our hikes. We just had put out a camera and we were heading up a mountain to put out a second camera… We were walking on a path which was surrounded by dense vegetation and after one of the turns, I … Read more

Study Area First of all, after this one day of 30°C, the temperature dropped in Edmonton as well to about 20°C. About a week ago I left Edmonton for the real fieldwork. We moved to a cabin near Cadomin, east side of the Rocky Mountains, next to Jasper National Park. The biggest town around is Hinton. There is a lot of mining in the area and the herbivores like to graze around this open grass areas. In the picture below you see elks grazing near the mine in the evening. First Grizzly bear On Friday we had to leave … Read more

Equipment & field site The last few days I have spent in Edmonton. I was preparing some field equipment (cleaning camera traps, testing bear collars, checking SD cards) and getting in though with interesting people… We had a quick visit to the field site and check the cabin we will be sleeping in for at least some weeks. I already saw a lot of birds and mammals.Near the study site, we saw bighorn sheep, elk, white-tailed deer, mule deer and a coyote. No pictures yet, but I included a picture of the cabin. Most of my time I’ll be … Read more

Hello, I started this blog because I’ll go to Canada this summer (2013) to join a research project on Grizzly bears as a field technician of UBC (University of British Colombia, Canada). I’ll leave the 1st of May, for at least 3 months. I’ll try to put some updates on this blog, although I just have internet access once a week. So, that’s about it for now. Read more about me and my other projects Want to read more about Canada Other blog articles from my adventure in 2013:1. First fieldwork position – Canada – Start2. Edmonton3. First Grizzly, … Read more

Canadian Rockies: Yoho, Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Kananaskis, Waterton, Glacier, Vancouver & more… After a month of fieldwork in eastern Canada, I took a flight the west, visiting The Canadian Rockies, a little bit of the U.S. and Vancouver. This story is back from 2010, but it was a great experience I want to share. I’ll focus on where I’ve been and what animals I’ve seen. Hopefully, I can inspire some people to go and visit this magnificent place. I was there from the beginning of August until September 15th 2010. I will start with a couple of tips: Book trips/campsites … Read more

Master thesis on damselflies in Canada In 2010, I went with a PhD student to Canada for one Month. Our goal was to find a damselfly, called E. irene, and study them in a lot of different sites. This species of damselfly has a very species occurrence. There are actually two morphs of females: one that looks like a female, and one which looks like a male. Weird? Well, there is a benefit for females to look like males, so they get less harassment (energy consuming) from males. I joined the researcher around Quebec and we went north along … Read more